Rob Ford avoids Tuesday statement on alleged video

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford sits during a City council meeting at Toronto City Hall on Tuesday May 21, 2013. Ford ignored a crush of reporters waiting outside his city hall office this morning in the hopes he would address allegations that he was recorded on video appearing to smoke crack cocaine.Photo: Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press

Reporters waited by the office elevator at Toronto City Hall on Tuesday morning for Rob Ford to address reports about a video in which he was alleged to be smoking crack cocaine.

But as the mayor retreated to a special city council meeting that was called to debate the prospect of building a downtown casino — a proposal that failed to gain the sufficient support from politicians — no official statement on the controversy was forthcoming.

Ford spoke about his disappointment with the failure of the casino plan at 11:10 a.m. soon after it was confirmed that he had no plans to publicly address anything else on Tuesday.

The comments on the casino from the mayor stuck to the script of questioning why Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne wouldn’t support a project that theoretically promised an economic boost to Toronto — including an estimated 10,000 new jobs.

Council ultimately voted 40-4 against allowing any new gaming sites in the city.

Ford stepped out of the meeting after his speech. But sources indicated through the morning that there was no chance that he would leave council chambers on Tuesday to hold a press conference.

But when the second floor elevator door opened at 9:54 a.m., Ford had his back to the gathered media throng, accompanied by two of his staffers. The outside button had been pressed for it to stop where and when it did.

The mayor proceeded upstairs to council chambers where a special council meeting was being held on a possible Toronto casino. Ford last held a press conference to announce the deal for the downtown integrated resort was basically dead. But opponents of the deal were particularly insistent on holding a formal vote.

Further debate concerned expansion of gaming at the west end Woodbine Racetrack in the wake of a downtown casino cancellation. But that idea was shot down, too.

Jean-Pierre Boutros, the policy advisor to city councillor Karen Stintz, shared this picture of the number of mainstream news outlet cameras trained on the meeting that was nonetheless being broadcast as usual via Rogers community television: